A lot of it is “nonsense.”:
"Market Basket rival chains treading carefully; Customer surge raises tough PR, supply issues" by Dan Adams | Globe Correspondent August 18, 2014
The paralysis that has gripped regional grocery powerhouse Market Basket should be a tremendous windfall for its supermarket rivals — if only they could take advantage of it.
The thousands of loyal Market Basket customers who are now flooding nearby Hannaford, Stop & Shop, Star Market, and Shaw’s supermarkets bring to those stores not just a huge surge in sales but also thorny business and public relations challenges.
People gotta eat.
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Sean Willems, an associate professor at Boston University who studies operations management, said, “Beyond all the human drama, there is a fascinating business problem here.”
Three of the region’s main supermarkets each acknowledged that business at many of their stores has picked up substantially since July, when Market Basket employees and customers began boycotting the company’s stores to force the rehiring of popular president Arthur T. DeMoulas.
But representatives of Hannaford, Shaw’s/Star Market, and Stop & Shop declined to comment in detail on the Market Basket boycott. Indeed, the chains have either been cautious in their public statements or said little at all.
Analysts said the rival supermarkets have to be careful not to be seen as capitalizing on the controversy.
Moreover, they are limited in making quick changes, such as offering special discounts or new products, because supermarkets typically lock into their current inventory weeks ahead of time.
Their first and foremost problem is logistical: Many of their stores are now mobbed, and they need extra food and staff to keep both their new and existing customers satisfied.
A few supermarkets have barely kept up with the new business from former Market Basket customers. Customers have posted pictures on social media sites showing empty shelves at some stores after the crush of shoppers defecting from Market Basket.
Kevin Griffin, publisher of the Griffin Report on Food Marketing, said the rivals are in a difficult position.
“They’re not coming apart,” Griffin said. “But they can’t get the help, they can’t get the stores stocked fast enough, and it means they can’t service customers how they’d like to.”
The chains said they deployed contingency plans normally used during blizzards or hurricanes, when shoppers make a mad dash to stores to stock up on essentials, and brought in additional supplies and personnel. But that, too, entails some risk, since it is unclear when — or if — the crisis at Market Basket would abate and shopping life would return to normal.
There is a "new normal" now.
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One reason why Market Basket commands such loyalty among shoppers is that the prices are often much lower than at competitors.
And yet they still made good profit and had well taken care of workers.
Now, unhappy with the prices at rival chains, some Market Basket shoppers are taking to social media to trash the competition, while pining for their neighborhood Market Basket stores.
Online, customers call Hannaford “Can’tAfford,” or post pictures of barren refrigerators they say are empty because of high prices at Stop & Shop or Shaw’s.
Richard Nicolazzo, who runs the Boston public relations and communications firm Nicolazzo & Associates, said the rival supermarkets are wise to not respond to such criticism.
“There has been an amazing and emotional expression of brand loyalty to Market Basket that goes way beyond common sense and reason,” he said.
Ah, the loyalty of public relation$.
“I would let it lie. You cannot make sense out of nonsense, and a lot of this is nonsensical.”
Unfortunately, that is what mostly fills my paper.
Of the major chains, only Shaw’s would respond to the sniping from the Market Basket faithful,; otherwise, cautious is the prevailing tone among Market Basket competitors.
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Chief among their fears, analysts theorized, is that a single statement interpreted by Market Basket loyalists as insensitive could bring a stinging backlash.
“There’s been this kind of general theory that it would be improper for a competing supermarket to take out ads that say, ‘Welcome, Market Basket shoppers!’ ” said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate who runs ConsumerWorld.org . “There’s a worry that people will ask, ‘Whose side on you are on?’ ”
Cutting prices is also a sensitive issue. While the chains said they endeavor to keep prices competitive, they noted that many products are typically priced and ordered long before they appear on shelves.
And without a drastic rewriting of strategy, it would be difficult for a higher-margin supermarket chain to suddenly emulate the discount Market Basket model, which relies on sales volume....
Others, however, questioned whether the competition is in any rush to lower prices. After all, where else would Market Basket shoppers get their groceries?
“You don’t have to lower your prices when you’re the only game in town,” Dworsky said.
Several weeks into the crisis, analysts said, the competitors appear to be holding their own under the circumstances.
And while the nature of grocery shopping means the stores will have multiple chances to try to win over Market Basket shoppers, the companies will be able to bend only so far to please.
“You’re not going to be changing your business model. You’re trying to make temporary accommodations while converting as many people as you can into regular shoppers,” Griffin said.
“You’ve got to win customers one at a time. I’d say the opportunity outweighs the risk, and hopefully you can seize that and make the most of it.”
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"Governors try to broker a Market Basket deal; Patrick, Hassan deliberate with feuding cousins, others" by Casey Ross | Globe Staff August 18, 2014
In a last-ditch effort to rescue the Market Basket grocery chain, Governor Deval Patrick and Governor Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire brokered negotiations Sunday night aimed at ending the bitter family standoff that has left the 71-store chain on the brink of collapse and put thousands of people out of work.
After several hours of discussion, a deal remained elusive but the talks were said to be promising, and continued into the night. Arthur T. Demoulas is trying to buy the company from rival family members and return as president.
“The parties have made real progress on the terms of the sale and operating control of the company, and the governors are encouraged that a resolution may be within reach,” Heather Nichols, a spokeswoman for Patrick, said in a statement.
The negotiations included the two feuding cousins at the center of the dispute, Arthur T. and Arthur S. Demoulas, as well as board chairman Keith Cowan, and Tina Albright, representing one of the shareholders, according to the statement. Neither Arthur S. nor Arthur T. offered a comment on the status of the negotiations.
The involvement of the two governors — an extraordinary step for a dispute at a private company — signals a final push to reach a deal after a weeks-long stalemate between rival factions of the Demoulas family. It also underscores the urgency of ending the dispute, which has put thousands of Market Basket’s part-time employees out of work and is threatening the jobs of thousands of full-time workers as well.
Patrick and Hassan began offering to help reach a deal several days ago — a bid that culminated in Sunday evening’s negotiations, held at Patrick’s office in Springfield.
A board meeting was scheduled to be convened on Monday in Boston, as the company faces a shrinking set of options for continuing to operate. It has lost tens of millions of dollars in recent weeks due to an employee walkout and customer boycott, and it is unclear how much longer it can keep stores open.
Time to get out the toothbrushes.
Market Basket has more than 25,000 employees who work at stores and other facilities throughout Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. About 10,000 work in New Hampshire and a similar number work in Massachusetts.
The crisis began in late June....
Despite the feud, the company has prospered in recent years. It is reported to have had revenue of $4.6 billion in 2013 and is ranked by Forbes as the 127th-largest private company in the United States.
The company’s meltdown in recent weeks has affected not only the employees, but hundreds of growers and food vendors, as well as businesses that occupy space in shopping plazas where Market Basket is the main draw.
But the economy is roaring nevertheless.
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Related: Patrick Invokes Martial Law Over Market Basket Protests
